*Courtesy of Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images.*

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ co-writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick told IndieWire that the team wanted Robert Downey Jr. to return as Tony Stark/Iron Man for a cameo appearance in the third Deadpool feature.

Downey turned the offer down, which makes more sense in the context of his recent reveal and Marvel return as a new character; Doctor Doom. Apparently, no one on the Deadpool writing team was aware about Downey’s planned return.

“Behind the scenes, we didn’t know about the Doctor Doom,” Wernick said. “And there’s no way he was going to do both. And then we said, ‘Oh, Downey doesn’t say “no” to Ryan Reynolds, does he? No one says no to Ryan Reynolds.’ And Ryan gave him the hard press. We wrote scenes, and Downey read the scenes, but what we didn’t know behind the scenes was this Doctor Doom thing.”

Early in Deadpool 3, Wade Wilson meets with Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan, who rejects his application to join the Avengers, and it was here that Tony Stark was supposed to appear.

“Ryan Reynolds wrote the scene with both of them, so in the hopes we could get Downey,” Reese said. “But he also wanted Favreau, because they’re a great combo, and they were all in the scene together.”

Another idea floating around with the writers was to have all the original six Avengers to return.

“We haven’t told anybody this, but there was a version of that scene very, very early on that wasn’t written, but was conceived, that had all the Avengers in the room,” Wernick continued. “And Wade was rejected and then he dressed all the Avengers down in a way only Deadpool could do.”

“He was going to get mad and basically attack each one of them in a vicious kind of way,” added Reese.

This would have included a joke with Rob Delaney’s Peter picking up Thor’s hammer with ease.

READ OUR REVIEW: ‘Deadpool And Wolverine’ Is A Passionate Energy-Fueled Action That Revives The Marvel Cinematic Universe, But Fluffs Any Real Stakes

Though Downey turned down the Tony Stark reprisal, the actor will be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Doctor Doom in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ (2026) and ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ (2027) — both in which will be directed by the Russo Brothers, who also return to the franchise.

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